Tag: #statues

At long last I can post about our night at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo…

Dad loves bagpipes since I can remember he played a 7 single with bagpipe music on it. He always said that before he closes his eyes permanently he want’s to go to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo…

Then in March 2018 he got very sick and was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. One day out of the blue he asked me if I could choose any place overseas to visit where would I like to go… “I have a list as long as the National road” I told him…

Then I remembered his words and said Scotland. Dad asked me to see when the Military Tattoo is his only demand for our holiday was that it includes the Military Tattoo…. After doing some research I contact Nordic Visitor for a quote and put the plans in motion. Sarah told me that I better book our tickets for tattoo early because it sells out very fast. 24 January 2019 I booked our tickets for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August 2019.

Dad was super excited and I could see in the way he walked that he could not get there fast enough… I did take some random photos while walking…

Sunflower

Ampersand

The Magnum

Dad on his way to the Military Tattoo

The Portrait Gallery

Portrait Gallery

Tram tracks

Tram tracks

Louis Vuitton

Oor Wullie Statue

Scott Monument

Oor Wullie Statue

Waverley Station Train tracks

Giant Wheel

The Mound – Black Watch Memorial

Dad was so excited that not even the stairs was to much for him. The closer we got the less dad talked… He was getting a bit emotional…

The views behind the stands was so beautiful I could not just pass. So while dad was visiting the bathroom before heading to our seats I took the opportunity to capture it.

Thank you for joining us on our way to the Military tattoo. I won’t be saying much in my next post. Will mostly be photos of the Tattoo.

Good Morning friends and followers. I hope that your lockdown is also very productive. I must say mine has been so far. I ticked off a few task on my to do list so far.

I am busy reorganizing my kitchen one cupboard at a time. Still a few to go…

Since this weekend I have been organizing my photos of our Grand Tour of Scotland. Putting the photos into folders. This makes it easier for me to do my research on all the places we have visited and also to see 1400 photos in 1 folder for 1 day gets a bit overwhelming, but 150 photo’s is much better… I would like to finish editing before we go on our next Scotland Tour….

I have finished planning our route just need to fine tune it and do some more research on traveling in campervan and Wild Camping in Scotland. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Okay enough of that let’s get back to our walk back to Ben Cruachan Guesthouse…

The Scotsman Hotel

The Balmoral

The Balmoral Clock tower

The Balmoral

The Balmoral Hotel is such a beautiful building. I wonder how it looks inside? In my imagination it would be fit for a King and Queen…. Next time I will arrange to have a peek inside….

“The statue of the Duke of Wellington outside Register House was unveiled in a highly patriotic ceremony on 18 June 1852, the thirty-seventh anniversary of his greatest victory at Waterloo. Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon was regarded as ensuring the freedom not only of Britain but of Europe in general. “

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Waterloo Place Home of Rabbies Tours

Dad and I encountered multiple meetings with one of Rabbies Tours tour busses while exploring Scotland and some of the islands. Only while editing I realized that I captured one of the buildings they occupied.

Leith Street

Walking down Leith Street

Walking down Leith Street was an experience. They were working on buildings and also the road. The beautiful hanging flower baskets caught my eye…. I just loved it…. But more next time….

Good day everybody. Hope you are all well and are staying safe. Let’s continue our walk…

We crossed the street and walked towards Waverley Station. I turned around just for a quick photo of Cockburn Street. Turning back I captured Scott Monument from a far… The road was very busy and my arms and back were beginning to ache. Carrying your camera in your hand the whole day is starting taking it’s toll….

It does not matter from what side you capture this monument the craftsmanship and detail are extraordinary. I am looking forward to our next visit…. We reached Princess Street not that far from our Guesthouse now….

On our way back to our Guesthouse we passed the Elephant House. According to our planning we were supposed to have a cup of tea here, but there were not space for a mouse inside…. So instead I took a photo and said to myself next time….

As you can see it was difficult taking photo’s here in Old Town in Edinburgh. August is definitely an ideal time to visit Edinburgh to capture buildings. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my stay so much that we are planning to visit Edinburgh again in 2021, but this time in May and not for 1 day but at least 3 to 5 days… It all depends how my planning for the rest of our 76 days in Scotland goes… But I would really like to spend more time in this beautiful city…

Above is some photo’s I took of St Giles Cathedral. Would have loved to go inside, but the crowds was just to much and I am not really a fan of crowds of people. So till next time.

Thank you for joining us again wandering through the busy streets of Edinburgh….

Thank you for wandering through the streets of Edinburgh with us. By now I could see that dad were getting very tired and due to the fact that the streets were so busy with thousands of festival goers we decided to rather move the walk up the Royal mile to the day we get back from our Grand Tour of Scotland…

The one thing that really upset me is the fact that the beautiful Cathedrals and Churches are turned into pubs….. I would rather use these beautiful buildings for something positive… Like shelters for abused woman and children, Coffee shops and a place for local artist to sell their goods or even as a workshop where artist mentor other people and share the secrets of their trade…. But a pub that is just not why these buildings was built. Wasn’t it built to be a safe place for people….

I did however chose a route back to our guesthouse where would still tick the boxes of some of the places to see on our list.

While walking down Candlemaker Row towards George IV Bridge we were searching for the Greyfriars Bobby Statue. I have no idea why I was looking for a big statue and walked passed it the first time. My GPS kept saying I must turn around and when I did I saw the statue…. It looked much bigger in the photos I saw on Instagram and the internet.

The story Of Bobby the Skye Terrier who Guarded the grave of his owner John Gray until his own death on 14 January 1872 is heartwarming and even if it is fabricated of a publicity stunt I still believe that mans best friend is loyal to a fault….

As promised I am trying to make up for being so busy over the past few weeks. Let’s continue our walk along Princess Street and crossing the road to Princess Gardens…

I have to say the grass is always greener on the other side…. I took some photo’s of the Princess Gardens over the fence. In our original planning we would only visit the gardens when we came back to Edinburgh after our tour. But plans changed and I am glad I have a few photos of the gardens and the statues. But Edinburgh is definitely on our itinerary for our next visit but this time we are staying a week at least….

I just loved the Sir James Young Simpson Monument sitting in the shade of the trees…

I had to go to visit the ladies room and saw the sign for it, but I took the wrong set of stairs and ended up in the graveyard of the St Cuthbert’s Church. Normally I so not like to take photo’s of graves, but these were so beautiful that I just had to capture them.

St Cuthbert’s are situated at the western foot of Castle Rock and at the west end of Princess Street. You have a beautiful framed view between the trees of the Castle from here…

You also have a very nice view of St Cuthbert’s from Princess Gardens side.

The view of Castle Rock from inside Princess Gardens is spectacular….

Thank you for this short walk through St Cuthbert’s next post will be mostly about Ross Fountain…